If you’re familiar with the talents and accomplishments of Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Lisa Loeb – the pop/rock/folk performer who plays Davenport’s Redstone Room on April 23 – you could easily be fooled into thinking the artist is ... well ... pretty unassailably cool.

A Brown University graduate who spent the early 1990s playing New York City’s rock-club and coffee-house circuit, Loeb achieved phenomenal success with the release of 1994’s “Stay (I Missed You)” from the Reality Bites soundtrack, a pop-rock single by Loeb and her Nine Stories ensemble that shot to number one on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, earned the group a Grammy nomination, and made VH1’s list of the “100 Greatest Songs of the ’90s.” (The tune’s release also made Loeb the first musician to top the Billboard charts before being signed to any record label.)

Following that early career high, Loeb had a critical smash with her gold-selling debut album Tails in 1995, additional hits with such releases as 1997’s Grammy-nominated Firecracker, 2002’s Cake & Pie, and 2013’s No Fairy Tale, and an Entertainment Weekly rave citing her “undeniable gift for creating an air of intimacy and vulnerability.”

Loeb has appeared in TV series such as Gossip Girl and The Sarah Silverman Program. She voiced Mary Jane Watson in MTV’s animated Spider-Man: The New Animated Series. She started her own signature eyewear collection. She has her own brand of coffee, for heaven’s sake.

So yeah. Pretty unassailable. But still: Check out the accompanying photo. I mean, no graham crackers? No melted bars of chocolate? Not cool, Lisa. That’s just a waste of perfectly toasted marshmallows.

Lisa Loeb performs with an opening set by Dan Tedesco, and more information on the night is available by calling (563)326-1333 or visiting RiverMusicExperience.org.

Theatre

Pinocchio

Davenport Junior Theatre

Saturday, April 26, through Sunday, May 4

Davenport Junior Theatre wraps up its 2013-14 season of locally written plays based on classic literary works with Pinocchio, the timeless tale of a puppet who longs to be a real live boy, running April 26 through May 4. And tasked with writing the stage version of Carlo Collodi’s Italian serial The Adventures of Pinocchio, adapter Daniel D.P. Sheridan says he took an unusual approach in crafting his hour-long family entertainment: “I wrote a really, really, really, really long play. Like a two-and-a-half-hour play.”

Call it madness, but there was a method to it. “I first spent a lot of time with [Collodi’s] text,” says Sheridan, “and before I decided to remove too much of it, I wanted to see how it fell out theatrically. Because sometimes you read something in a book where you think, ‘Oh, that’d be awfulin a play,’ but then you write it out, and it reveals itself to be a really great moment. So I [adapted] it all, and I then went backward and tried to figure out what was essential to the dramatic telling of this story, and what was going to service its momentum.”

Sheridan did this, he says, without watching 1940’s beloved Disney cartoon. “I stayed away from any videos of any other Pinocchios. But I was conscious of wanting to keep elements that kids knew from the movie. Pinocchio becoming a donkey, and spending more time with that story, was a big thing for me, and things like his nose growing longer, and the Blue Fairy ... . I think I could have gotten away with cutting the cricket out of the story, but I really thought people would’ve left going, ‘Where’s the cricket?!’”

Pinocchio is being directed by Sheridan’s wife Jessica, whose recent credits for Junior Theatre include Mia the Melodramatic and The Jungle Book, and its cast includes such Junior Theatre favorites as Andy Pavey as Pinocchio, Amanda Grissom as the Fox, and Shaun Garrity as Geppetto. Sheridan also promises “a really fun and imaginative” experience involving special effects, shadow puppetry, and a visual aesthetic more steampunk than Disney ... plus, of course, the aforementioned cricket.

Just don’t expect it to meet the same fate it does in Collodi’s serial. “Rather than scraping the cricket off the end of a mallet,” says Sheridan with a laugh, “we leave his fate a little more open-ended than that.”

Pinocchio will be performed Saturdays at 1 and 4 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m., and more information is available by calling (563)326-7862 or visiting DavenportJuniorTheatre.com.

ACTING SMART

Helpful Tips on Appearing More Intelligent Than You Actually Are

At 9 p.m. on April 18, Rock Island’s Rozz-Tox will present a special evening with the Minneapolis-based musician Dosh, the wildly gifted multi-instrumentalist known primarily for his experimental, electronics-based percussion stylings and the dynamic skill with which he attacks the drums, keyboards, and marimba. As Dosh himself stated in Walker Art magazine, “Going to see a band you’ve never seen before is one of my favorite things in the world,” so if you’re unfamiliar with the artist but curious to catch his local gig anyway, here are five ways to feel more in-the-loop before entering Rozz-Tox’s door.

1) Know some of Dosh’s biography. Born Martin Chavez Dosh on September 6, 1972, Dosh grew up in the Twin Cities, began drumming at age 15, received a degree in creative writing from Bard College at Simon’s Rock in Massachusetts, and started his first Minneapolis-based band in 1997.

2) Know some of Dosh’s collaborators. Best known for his extensive tours alongside Andrew Bird, Dosh has also played with such Minnesota-based groups as Happy Apple, Tapes ’n’ Tapes, and Nasty Goat; performed alongside Andrew Broder in the bands Fog and Lateduster; and is currently a member of the four-piece Cloak Ox alongside Broder, Mark Erickson, and Jeremy Ylvisaker.

3) Know Dosh’s discography. With 2013’s acclaimed Milk Money his most recent release, Dosh has delivered 13 additional albums – plus the 2004 EP Naoise – since his self-titled 2002 debut, and can also be heard playing on albums by Bon Iver, Dark Dark Dark, and Sole & the Skyrider Band.

4) Know what reviewers say about Dosh. AllMusic.com says that Dosh’s compositions “have a driving sense of wonder, like the most optimistic Philip Glass pieces.” The A.V. Club writes that his songs “evolve like dreams, always in motion and revealing new surprises at each turn.” And Pitchfork.com states that Dosh achieves “just the right balance between restraint and restlessness.”

5) Know how to use Dosh’s name in a sentence. If your Mom calls on April 18 and asks for help moving something heavy out of the basement that night, just say, “Sorry, Mom – gotta Dosh!” Then hang up quickly, before she can call you “jock-oss.”

For more information on Dosh’s area concert, call (309)200-0978 or visit RozzTox.com.

Music

Kip Winger

Rascals Live

Friday, April 18, 9 p.m.

“Hey, Jeff!”

“Hello, Mi – . I’m not even going to ask.”

“You mean the outfit? I’m wearing it in honor of the upcoming Moline concert with Kip Winger, who’s going to be playing Rascals Live on April 18! Seems kind of perfect, don’t you think?”

“Mike, you do know that Kip Winger is the bassist and lead vocalist for the rock band Winger, don’t you? The group that had platinum-selling albums with their self-titled 1988 debut and 1990’s In the Heart of the Young? The group nominated for a 1990 American Music Award for Best New Heavy Metal Band?”

“Of course I know that, Jeff ... .”

“And you do know that after the original Winger lineup disbanded in 1994, the group re-formed in 2006, released the albums IV and Karma, and has a new studio album – Better Day’s Comin’ – being released on April 22?”

“Well, I’m not an idiot ... .”

“In addition to fronting Winger, you know that Kip has five solo albums to his name, toured and played on two albums with Alice Cooper’s band, served as lead singer for the Alan Parsons Live Project, and has participated and performed as a counselor for the Rock & Roll Fantasy Camp alongside such rock legends as Roger Daltrey and Steven Tyler?”

“I’m aware of all that ... .”

“And! Even if you didn’t know a thing about Kip Winger’s rock history, you probably landed on the information that he’s also an acclaimed composer of classical music, and has even been nominated for the prestigious Isadora Duncan Award for Excellence in Music?”

“I know all that! But did you know that Kip Winger wrote a 30-minute symphonic ballet piece that debuted in 2010 at the San Francisco Ballet?”

Saturday, April 26 – Family Groove Company. Jazz, funk, and rock musicians in concert, with an opening set by the Uniphonics. The Redstone Room (129 Main Street, Davenport). 9 p.m. $10-12. For tickets and information, call (563)326-1333 or visit RiverMusicExperience.org.